Reborn Maine mill town offers lessons amid refugee crisis

1of 8Students walk home from school last month in Lewiston, Maine. Since February 2001, more than 5,000 Africans have come to live in Lewiston. The first Somalis arrived after a refugee resettlement program was established in Portland, Maine.Photo: Robert F. Bukaty, STF

2of 8In this Monday, Dec. 14, 2015 photo, Austin Wing, left, and Abdi Shariff check out pictures on Shariff's phone at Lewiston High School in Lewiston, Maine. The two students were players on the state championship-winning soccer team. In Lewiston, white residents now see the black newcomers want the same things they do _ a safe place to raise a family, good schools, freedom and jobs, said Abdi Said, a refugee who was originally put in San Jose, California, before he moved to Lewiston. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)Photo: Robert F. Bukaty, STF

3of 8In this Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016 photo, Shukri Abasheikh, owner of Mogadishu Store, speaks with a customer in Lewiston, Maine. "When Somalis came in, Lewiston people, Maine people, they think they need welfare but we don't need welfare. We need jobs. We need peace. We need education," said Abasheikh, who worked as a janitor before achieving her dream of running her own business. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)Photo: Robert F. Bukaty, STF

4of 8In this Monday, Dec. 14, 2015 photo, Abdi Shariff, co-captain of Lewiston High School's state championship-winning soccer team, speaks to a reporter in Lewiston, Maine. Shariff spent years in a Kenyan refugee camp before his family relocated to Louisville, Ky., and then Lewiston. "It just shows that people from different races, different cultures, can all work together and accomplish a goal if they want to," he said. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)Photo: Robert F. Bukaty, STF

5of 8In this Monday, Jan. 25, 2016 photo, students and parents watch a high school basketball game between Lewiston High School and Edward Little High School in Auburn, Maine. The arrival of thousands of Somali refugees in Lewiston, a former mill city in the nation's whitest state, sparked a backlash. Fifteen years later, though, Somali shops, restaurants and mosques serve as an example of how far the city of Lewiston has come. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)Photo: Robert F. Bukaty, STF

6of 8In this Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016 photo, Mike McGraw teaches a biology class at Lewiston High School in Lewiston, Maine. McGraw is also the coach of the varsity soccer team whose undefeated team featured players from Somalia, Kenya and Congo. âIt doesn't take long for kids to become Americanized. What I'm happy about my kids is that they have not lost touch with their culture,â McGraw said.(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)Photo: Robert F. Bukaty, STF

7of 8In this Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016 photo, Abdi Said, right, trims the rubber bottoms of Bean Boots at an L.L. Bean factory in Lewiston, Maine. Said, a refugee, was originally put in San Jose, California, before he moved cross-country to Lewiston. âWe are working hard and we're going to school and everything - like regular American people. They see that we are not different,â he said. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)Photo: Robert F. Bukaty, STF

8of 8In this Monday, Dec. 14, 2015 photo, newspapers are displayed at Lewiston High School after the school's soccer team won the state championship, in Lewiston, Maine. The team features players from several African countries. Their success is simply an example of teamwork, said Abdi Shariff, a co-captain who lived in a Kenyan refugee camp before his family relocated to Louisville, Kentucky, and then Lewiston. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)Photo: Robert F. Bukaty, STF

LEWISTON, Maine - The arrival of thousands of Somali refugees in this former mill city in the nation's whitest state sparked a backlash at first, complete with a rally of white supremacists and a pig's head rolled into the local mosque.

Fifteen years later, the Somali newcomers are solid members of the community, as evidenced by its proliferation of shops, restaurants and mosques - and a championship-winning high school soccer team featuring players from Somalia and other African countries.

Shukri Abasheikh, owner of Mogadishu Store, a general store that caters to the African community, said she and her fellow newcomers have won respect from residents through hard work.

"When Somalis came in, Lewiston people, Maine people, they think we need welfare, but we don't need welfare. We need jobs. We need peace. We need education," said Abasheikh, who worked as a janitor before achieving her dream of running her own business.

In search of acceptance

As the U.S. prepares to accept thousands of refugees from war-torn Syria in coming months and years, this riverside community illuminates the challenges such newcomers can face - and shows that integration can be slow and painful, but ultimately successful.

Since February 2001, more than 5,000 Africans have come to Lewiston, a city of 36,500 on the Androscoggin River, in a prime example of what scholars call "rapid ethnic diversification."

The first Somalis found Lewiston after a refugee resettlement program was established in Portland, Maine's largest city.

Because of a housing shortage in Portland, they looked 30 miles to the north, where aging apartments that once housed Lewiston's mill workers provided plenty of low-cost homes.

There was no formal plan. It just happened.

At first, Lewiston residents didn't know what to make of these newcomers who spoke no English, providing a challenge for schools. Many knew little of Somalia beyond news coverage of a soldier from a nearby town who was killed in a Somali firefight that became the basis for the movie "Black Hawk Down."

Turning point

Some locals resented so many black Muslims moving to a Roman Catholic community. Then came a letter from the mayor to the Somali community in 2002, asking them to discourage their friends and family from moving to Lewiston, saying "our city is maxed-out financially, physically and emotionally."

An out-of-state white supremacist group seized upon the discord to hold a rally.

Residents were bewildered to find their community painted as racist in the national news, and that low point became a turning point. They began to embrace the Somali community, and thousands staged a support rally far larger than the group with the white supremacists.

"That was definitely eye-opening, to see that they support and accept us," said Abdirahman Mohamud, Abasheikh's son, who grew up in Lewiston.

Three years after the rally, longtime residents have largely accepted the immigrants, said Jimmy Simones, whose grandfather was a Greek immigrant who opened Simones' Hot Dog Stand.